The Baltic *-ā́-illative

Abstract

Abstract The Lithuanian-Latvian illative was formed from the IE accusativus directivus and the local postposition *-ā́. Traces of the postponed *-ā́ have been preserved in yrà ‘is, are; OLith. there is, there are’ < *ī-r-ā́, and Lith. čià ‘here’ < *tj-ā́. Typologically, the Baltic illative can be compared to Greek derivatives with -δε, e.g. οἴκα-δε ‘homewards; at home’. As for the origin of the postponed *-ā́, two hypotheses can be formulated: 1. *-ā́ comes from the IE allative postposition *-eh₂ (see Hajnal 1992); 2. *-ā́ boils down to the instr. sg. of the anaphoric pronoun *h₁o-h₁. The primary illative plural ended in -s-ā́, e.g. OLith. (debesisa) ‘into heaven’. The postposition -na, which can be found e.g. in the ill. pl. miškúosna ‘into forests’, is an innovation resulting from reanalysis of the acc. sg. *-n + *-ā́ → *-nā́. The neutralisation of the privative opposition inessive : illative originally comprised an area much larger than today’s and included the West Aukštaitian dialect. The starting point of this neutralisation was plural forms. This primary state of affairs has remained until the present day in East Aukštaitian in the north from the line Raguva-Ukmergė-Molėtai-Salakas, where inessive sg. and illative sg. are distinguished, but inessive pl. and illative pl. are not, due to apocope of the final vowel, i.e. píevos ‘on meadows’ (= iness. pl. píevose) alongside píevos ‘onto meadows’ (= ill. pl. píevosna) (Zinkevičius 1966: 201). In the privative opposition inessive : illative, the illative form derived from the IE accusative of direction is the marked member of the opposition.